It must be a combination of $-driven 'suits' who don't view any series (no matter how good or base) as drama or opera anymore, but only as terminally dumbing drivel that happens between commercials, AND really BAD composers who are trying so hard to qualify for, and be recognized as DJs, the higher rank these days - and not of David Holmes quality. I know I would do a proper job unless the producers/directors threw it out the window and demanded I DJed, in which case - surprise! - I would walk out, stuff the money if that crap is to be credited with my name on the screen...

Meaning, that I only want music of quality to be publicly available under my name, of as much quality as I am capable, and I think all the memorable past composers wished this, as well as anyone today worth the title. That is why I also blame the compos(t)ers. If they say "why sweat it, this assignment is not worth our 100%", I say listen to the greats; they don't care about the quality of the project (if they really need money they take it, sure), but they never drop the standards of their own work - from Prokofiev to Rose, the serious ones, the ones that have bled to acquire their art and only use the technology as convenience (not dependence!), they care what they leave for posterity, they care about being able the following day to look colleagues in the eye, they care about those learned colleagues saying "great work that track yesterday"...

A great score won't rescue a crap tv program - period. Neither will a crap score completely ruin a great tv program. It's fair to say that there are probably more good music writers out there today than good tv program makers. But you could say the same thing for editors and cinema-photographers too etc etc.

Take the Coen Brothers films for instance. They occasionally make good films. They have a great cinema-photographer they've more or less used for years - and they have a musician they've also used for years. One of them earns his dough - and the other one seemingly does very little to earn his. It's the way of tv and films.

 errikos, you're probably right about that.  Many of Goldsmith's scores were for bad films yet were great music. 

"compos(t)ers"...  I love it.

 The theme from Alfred Hitchcock presents is not by Benny Herrmann but French Composer Charles Gounod ...

Yes, of course it is - it is the famous Funeral march of a Marionette by Gounod who I remember had the gall to criticize Cesar Franck - an immensely better composer - for using an English Horn in his D minor symphony, telling him you can't use that instrument in a symphony!!!  But anyway I was not talking about the main title theme of that program.  Bernard Herrmann wrote the internal scores for the later seasons, using those unique instrumental combinations I was speaking of. 

BTW the most famous Theme of the Twilight Zone was not by Herrmann but by an avant garde composer whose name i can't remember. Can you?   But Herrmann wrote another theme for the same show that was used and it was actually much better, though not as weird in the doo-doo-doo-doo way everybody likes to mimic when something strange happens. 

@William said:

BTW the most famous Theme of the Twilight Zone was not by Herrmann but by an avant garde composer whose name i can't remember. Can you?   But Herrmann wrote another theme for the same show that was used and it was actually much better, though not as weird in the doo-doo-doo-doo way everybody likes to mimic when something strange happens. 

 Speaking of the Twilight Zone, does anybody know what instrument made that famous doo-doo-doo-doo phrase?

@jasensmith said:

 Speaking of the Twilight Zone, does anybody know what instrument made that famous doo-doo-doo-doo phrase?

I reckon it was an electric guitar Jasen.

Colin

 Marius Constant !

continued....

I'll take an a mile of block chords over the guy who scores about seventy percent of today's major releases.  Over the past five or six years he's come on like (and with) blockbusters... Anyone know much about him?  He goes by the name of "Various Artists."

  As for TV-- my girlfriend watches a lot of medical shows and those Sunday night melodramas.  If I can't escape the room, I'll read a book.  But I've yet to block my ears to the soundtracks, an endless procession of soft folky songs sung in serious soft voices, mixed just low enough that not a single lyric is understood, which, I suppose is the point, as they're supposed to sound wise and keenly aware of the point of the scene, whatever that is, and most likely would not if we could hear them.  

Is there actually a name for that relatively new genre of songwriting being cloned from one series to the next? The same lame/basky acoustic guitar and even lamer, pathetic, aesthetically excruciating, reeking vocals that accompany it? A snotty youngster who has no right to be in the same building with a microphone and a recording device supposedly "touches" the "moment" and us, while it's always the same music and tone of voice whether it's scoring death, dilemma, relationship problem, poor grades, pseudo-existentialism, destitution, AND EVEN sharing a bottle of wine with a loved one in front of a fireplace, family reunion, recovery, resolution of sorts, etc. It's incredible! The same track for sadness, anxiety, contentment and release! If the genre has been identified, is there someone credited for its inception? I'd like to get a contract out on her/him.

How about Bud Light (short for Budget Delight.)  Oh, right, that's already taken.